The Tech Landscape #115 đ§¸
The Nakajima Ki-115 Tsurugi was a World War II Japanese kamikaze plane planned to be used in the event of the invasion of Japan. It was very cheap and aimed to be mass-produced at a rate of 8,000 per month. The atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki meant none ever flew in combat.
15 stories this week, but the two to really pay attention to are Alexa the smart home controller, and Instagram the augmented reality platform.
Assistants & Voice
Alexa-powered devices can now communicate with many more gadgets, games, and toys after the release of Custom Interfaces to developers. This is, I think, a very big announcement; Custom Interfaces unlock a whole new range of applications for Alexa and clearly indicates Amazonâs ambitions for the future.
developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/ca2cfbfb-37a2-49de-840c-f06f6ad8b74d/introducing-custom-interfaces-enabling-developers-to-build-dynamic-gadgets-games-and-smart-toys-with-alexa
Natwest is trialling a service to access banking through Google Assistant. Users will initially only be able to get information, not make transactions, and will need to authenticate with a specially-created password.
theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/12/hey-google-lend-me-a-tenner-natwest-trials-voice-banking
Google Assistant users can now assign reminders to other people in their Family Group or who are connected to the same Home device. Useful for, e.g. âremind Ana to buy toilet paperâ.
blog.google/products/assistant/stay-organized-and-productive-new-assignable-reminders/
XR / Immersive
Instagram has opened up its augmented reality effects platform to all creators, so anyone can publish an effect using Spark AR. This is the second big announcement; Instagram is now the best platform to get AR experiences into the hands of many users.
tech.fb.com/creativity-for-all-facebooks-spark-ar-now-lets-anyone-build-and-share-effects-on-instagram/
Snap(chat) announced the latest version of its Spectacles, which now include twin HD cameras to capture 3D images which can later be augmented with dedicated Lenses. Itâs another baby step towards full AR glasses.
snap.com/en-US/news/post/introducing-spectacles-3/
YouTubeâs virtual cosmetics try-on feature has launched with a partnership with MAC. The feature was initially announced back in June.
techcrunch.com/2019/08/15/youtubes-new-ar-feature-lets-you-virtually-try-on-makeup-while-watching-videos/
Social
Twitter announced a raft of upcoming changes, including subscriptions to topics of interest, topic muting, and auto-generated lists.
theverge.com/2019/8/13/20804476/twitter-interests-follow-topics-feature-accounts-timeline
Facebook is simplifying its privacy levels for Groups, removing the âclosedâ and âsecretâ labels and allowing only a choice between âpublicâ or âprivateâ.
newsroom.fb.com/news/2019/08/groups-privacy-settings/
Content
Automattic, the owners of the WordPress CMS, have agreed to buy Tumblr for a fee reported to be below ÂŁ3 millionâmuch less than the ÂŁ910 million its current owner, Verizon, paid.
theverge.com/2019/8/12/20802639/tumblr-verizon-sold-wordpress-blogging-yahoo-adult-content
Instagram will reportedly soon use the same fact-checking program as Facebook. Posts flagged as false by independent checkers wonât be deleted, but will be removed from hashtag and Discover feeds.
poynter.org/fact-checking/2019/you-can-now-report-a-suspicious-instagram-post-and-expect-a-certified-fact-checker-to-verify-it/
Everything Else
IKEA announced that its Home Smart division, which (obviously) makes smart home devices, will receive âsignificantâ investment and be spun out into its own business unit.
newsroom.inter.ikea.com/news/all/ikea-invests-heavily-in-the-smart-home-going-forward/s/211c6cbc-6db5-4c5b-bb52-391741fca4c1
Shopify has launched its own web-based messaging tool, Shopify Chat, for its ~800,000 business users and their customers.
venturebeat.com/2019/08/14/shopify-launches-web-chat-for-merchant-and-customers/
Owners of phones running Android 7.0 and above can now (or will soon be able to) log in to their Google accounts using their fingerprint or screen unlock instead of a password. To which I say: good, death to passwords.
theverge.com/2019/8/12/20801954/google-passwords-chrome-fido2-webauthn-fingerprint-biometrics-screen-lock
Spotify has made its analytics dashboard generally available to podcasters. Itâs spent a lot on podcasting this year, so this is a tool to make its platform more attractive to creators.
theverge.com/2019/8/13/20802018/spotify-for-podcasters-dashboard-live-beta-analytics
Chinese news aggregator site Toutiao has launched a web search tool to take on incumbent Baidu. Like all other search tools in Chinaâincluding Bingâit will censor results.
techcrunch.com/2019/08/11/bytedance-launches-a-new-search-portal-that-returns-a-mix-of-results-from-the-web-and-its-own-platforms/